All posts for the month July, 2006

Well I’m gonna try and review the two new classes from Guild Wars Nightfall, using only the half an hour I was playing before I go off on holiday – so sorry if anyone disagree’s.

Dervish: Sythe weiding warrior class. Almost as much armour, can only use sythes (but they are damn good), and has lots of skills for beefing up himself and his teammates. Wind Prayers can make you travel faster and do cold damage, while earth prayers give you earth damage (duh) and increase armour. Its mostly Elementalist really. I really love the sythe because it does damage to everyone around the person you attack! The skills are also good, but I just went as a ranger secondary class and turned all my seconardy skills into beastmastery – which worked quite well actually. The primary skill, Mysticism, is there to counter the disadvantage of being a warrior with low energy. It gives him health and energy after every enchantment, a good much needed boost.

Paragon: A commander unit with a spear for medium ranged attacks. While this guy doesn’t excel in combat he is capable to defending himself (unlike monks and mesmers), but his main purpose is to chant and shout at his teammates – giving them health, energy and damage bonuses. Leadership, is basically like Mysticism, giving you energy – except it gives you energy for everyone in your command.

Turning back the clock from 40k’s excellent Dawn of War by Relic, Black Hole Entertainment is making an RTS off the original warhammer. Interesting trailers sporting the graphics of the DoW intro movie can be found here. Its sure shaping up to be a good little brother, but somehow lasers and dreadnoughts seem far cooler than bows and swords.

On July 24, 2006, AMD and ATI announced a plan to join forces, in a transaction that will combine AMD’s technology leadership in microprocessors with ATI’s strengths in graphics, chipsets and consumer electronics. The result is a processing powerhouse: a new competitor, better equipped to drive growth, innovation and choice for its customers in commercial and mobile computing segments and in rapidly-growing consumer electronics segments. The transaction, valued at US $5.4 billion, is expected to close in Q4 2006 subject to approval by ATI shareholders, court approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

This truely is a huge event, both companies are usually favored by gamers so really are going to give their competitors a run for their money. Watch out nVidia and Intel! (ug think if they united!)

For all of those who have really been asleep lately, Portal (and Team Fortress 2) are being released from valve with their next installment of the Half Life 2 episodic content. I highly recommend anyone/everyone to get the preview movie, and you’ll see its almost like the gravity gun for revolutionary gameplay. Alot of people have been saying that Valve have copied Prey’s portals and done a one up, well…

With Valve’s recent announcement of Portal coming so close on the heels of the release of Prey, some have accused Valve of copying an innovative and trendy gameplay element, much like many developers rushed to include variants of Half-Life 2‘s own “gravity gun.” However, Portal seems to have been in development for some time; at least since the hiring of Narbacular Drop‘s developers, thus before the release date of Prey, long delayed and thought to be vaporware, was publically announced. To counter this criticism, it has been pointed out that although Prey does feature portals, they are not under player control, do not take into account momentum, and are not as integral to the gameplay of Prey as they are to the gameplay of Portal. Prey is also not the first game to feature portal technology: Descent and the original Unreal both featured them in functional, if not pretty, form.

(from wikipedia)

Episode 2 is another highlight right now, with trailers floating around and rumours being speculated. Firstly I would like to state that Alyx won’t die, I am about 90% sure of it. Valve cannot kill a major character like her without some huge reason (and someone to replace her as main character). I think she is either knocked out or maybe the she is dead but the vortigons do their magic.

Team Fortress 2 is looking good too: although I haven’t watched the preview movies yet, the screenshots speak for themselves and I love the style they are going for.

Signing off i would like to say that LAN parties are probably the best way to spend 24 hours, and the most exhausting way to! Screw it this is an extreme sport!

July 18, 2006 (BELLEVUE, WA) — ArenaNet®, developer of the world’s leading subscription-free online roleplaying games Guild Wars® and Guild Wars FactionsTM, and NCsoft® Corporation, the world’s leading developer and publisher of online computer games, announce today the title of the next game in the award-winning franchise, Guild Wars NightfallTM. Further, Guild Wars Nightfall has entered the beta testing stage and Guild Wars players worldwide are invited to participate in an exclusive, first-look player-versus-player (PVP) event, July 28 — 30, 2006.

During the PVP Preview Event, both Guild Wars and Guild Wars Factions® players will get a first look at Guild Wars Nightfall, and will be able to try out the two new professions being introduced in the game; the Dervish, a scythe-wielding holy warrior, and the Paragon, guardian angel of the Elonian people. In addition to testing out the new professions and arenas, players will also be able to compete for items that will be exchangeable for a variety of rewards throughout the weekend event.

Although we all knew, its nice to hear it from the publishers mouth, especially when you’ve been addicted to their game for the last 2 weeks (sorry that honestly is the only purpose of my life right now). The two new classes sound interesting and far better than the Factions classes, but I predicted the Dervish a few days ago – not that complicated of an idea for the Middle East style world they are crafting now.

This weekend we all get to try it out, and hopefully soon Ian will write up a review of Guildwars – but I am 99% sure if will be completely biased because this came is so freaking awsome…. yes erm… Cya all soon.

After the Piratebays big show of how the swedish piracy laws are utter pants, another Swed thought it would be a good idea to sell insurance just in case someone ever did get busted for file sharing. Thats right, for only $19 a year you can be protected from the FAA and other movie giants around the globe – you even get your own T-Shirt! (reading “I got convicted for file-sharing and all I got was this lousy T-shirt”). The maker, Braath says that he started the business to make a statement at the Swedish government for making filesharing a criminal activity under a new law, and that low that since no one is getting conviced he could probably keep going with it.

About Us

1337speak was established to providing news, reviews and speculation on the PC gaming industry for the end users - people like us, fellow gamers. The creators, Ian and Tim, are both students in the same college, are both intense gamers, and involved in game mod communities, abite being interested in different genres.